#1 Song 1977: “Best Of My Love,” the Emotions
Born: Paul Robi (the Platters), 1931; Isaac Hayes, 1942; KRS-One (Laurence Krisna Parker), 1965
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1949 Dinah Washington entered the R&B hit list with “Long John Blues,” peaking at #3.
1954 The Orioles began a weeklong engagement at Weekes Cafe in Atlantic City.
1955 Chuck Berry’s debut disc, “Maybellene,” charted on its way to #5 pop and #1 R&B. The classic would stay at #1 for eleven weeks and would be the first of twenty-seven pop and twenty-three R&B hits he would have through 1972. Not bad for a onetime hairdresser who began adulthood on the wrong side of the law. In 1944, at the age of eighteen, Chuck began a three-year stint in a reform school following a conviction for armed robbery.
1988 Rick James, with guest rapper Roxanne Shante, topped the R&B chart with “Loosey’s Rap.” It was Rick’s fourth and last #1.
1988 Karyn White, a former studio singer, stormed the R&B Top 100 with “The Way You Love Me,” making it the first of three #1s in a row. The hits to follow were “Superwoman” and “Love Saw It.”
1996 The Emotions, Billy Preston, the Brothers Johnson, and Isaac Hayes performed at the Universal Amphitheater in Universal City, CA. It was an especially enjoyable time for Isaac, as he was celebrating his fifty-fourth birthday.